1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an allocation method for controlling elevator groups.
2. Brief Description of the Related Art
Finnish patent application 951925 discloses a genetic method for allocating landing calls in an elevator group by forming a plurality of allocation options, each of which contains call data and elevator data for each landing call, said data together defining the elevator which is to serve each landing call. After this, the value of a cost function is computed for each allocation option and one or more allocation options are altered in respect of at least one data item, whereupon the values of the cost functions of the new allocation options are computed. On the basis of the cost functions, the best allocation option is selected and the currently active landing calls are allocated accordingly to the elevators of the elevator group.
In such a method, landing calls are given in such manner that the first person who comes to the floor inputs a landing call, which determines the desired traveling direction. Thus other passengers will not have to press a call button, if they are going in the same direction. This method is particularly effective in lunch hour-type traffic, mixed traffic and outgoing traffic, whereas intensive incoming traffic causes problems and congestion when this type of control method is used.
Finnish patent application 20000502 discloses a genetic method for the allocation of passengers to elevators, wherein each passenger gives his/her destination floor via a call input device, the starting floor and destination floor of the passenger being thus known. The passenger is allocated to an elevator car to serve him/her by a genetic allocation method, wherein the elevator routes are encoded into alternative chromosomes, the required data regarding the passenger and the elevator car being stored in a gene of the chromosome. After this, utilizing genetic methods, alternative chromosomes are developed and the best one among these is selected. In this way, the passengers indicated by the best chromosome are guided to the elevator cars represented by this chromosome, and the elevator cars indicated by the best chromosome are assigned to serve the passengers stored on the chromosome.
In such a method, the landing calls are issued as personal destination calls so that each person arriving at the landing gives his/her destination floor. Immediately after the group control system has made its control decision, the person is given information as to which elevator car is going to serve him/her. This method is particularly effective during heavy incoming traffic, whereas in lunch hour-type traffic, mixed traffic and outgoing traffic this type of control method may cause problems and congestion.